Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/255

 n s. 111. APRIL i, 1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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in his excavations in Crete seems to prove that it was the fashion 4000 B.C. The only book that I know which gives much infor mation on this subject is ' The Corset anc Crinoline,' by E. L. Lloyd, published aboul 1857 ; but this does not give much help until the pericd of the Middle Ages. Planche' s ' Cyclopaedia of Costume ' has a short para- graph only.

Please reply direct.

HENRY WALKER. Park House, Wortley, near Sheffield.

FISHING IN FRESH WATER IN CLASSICAL TIMES. Can any of your readers kindly inform me whether there is any allusion, in either Latin or Greek literature, to fishing in fresh water with rod or line ? I know there are allusions in Greek to sea fishing, but I am not aware of any to lake or river fishing. W. RADCLIFFE.

Windhara Club, S.VV.

SIR JOHN BUDD PHEAR : REV. JOHN JAMES RAVEN, F.S.A. Reference is sought to any oil paintings or engravings of the above : the former was an Indian Judge and Chairman of Devon Quarter Sessions ; the latter a distinguished campanologist.

Please reply direct.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

78, Church Street, Lancaster.

MAJOR JAMES RUSSELL MAD AN. Can any correspondent kindly inform me whom this gentleman married ? Born in 1701, he joined the army, and in February, 1741, was gazetted Major in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. During some fifty years he was Yeoman of the Robes to George II. and III., and died 30 November, 1788, leaving one daughter, Penelope Madan, who died in 1807. Kindly reply direct.

ALAN STEWART.

23, Willingdon Road, Eastbourne.

CHARD : ARMS IN THE ABBOT'S ROOM. There is a coat of arms emblazoned at the foot of the bedstead in the Abbot's room at Chard. Can any one tell me what families were represented by the six quarterings of this coat ? Would the quarterings repre- sent successive abbots, or benefactors ? If not, who was the original owner ?

C. J. W.

' A WHITE HAND AND A BLACK THUMB ' was a tale which appeared in All the Year Round many years ago. Had it any foundation of fact, or was it based on imagination ? Who was the writer ?

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

LATIN HEXAMETERS BY MACHINERY: JOHN PETER,

(11 S. iii. 168.)

IF MR. BRESLAR turns up 9 S. ix. 273, he will find that I there mentioned an " ingenious method of making Latin verses by machinery of which an account was given at least twenty years ago in an English magazine," and suggested Chambers' s Journal. On p. 12 of the next volume the late MR. MICHAEL FERRAR referred me to Bailey's dictionary (1727) sub voce 'Hexa- meter,' where six ' Versifying Tables for Hexameters ' are given with full directions.

While still in Australia I came again on the article I hftd remembered. It is entitled ' Latin Versification for the Million,' and appeared in Chambers' s Edinburgh Journal, vol. xiii., New Series, in the number for 30 March, 1850. From this the following extracts are taken :

"A few years ago (1845) considerable interest was excited in the London circles by the public exhibition at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, of a machine, constructed, I believe, by the celebrated

erman mechanician, Prof. Faber. This machine, when set in motion, composed Latin hexameter "ines or verses of faultless prosody. The lines were lot, as might be supposed, an unmeaning collection of dactyles arid spondees, arranged according to rule, similar to what are termed in some of our classical schools nonsense verses ; but each line con- eyed a meaning in good grammatical Latin."

"Amusing myself lately by examining an old arithmetical school-book [a foot-note says : " Arith- metic. In Two Parts. By Solomon Lowe. London:

749"] I found a note that a certain 'John Peters

Sep. 29, 1677)' had 'distributed' the letters of some l<atin words into tables, and 'entitled the piece Artificial Versifying ; whereby any one of ordinary capacity though he understand not one word of 1/atin, may be taught immediately to make hexa- meter and pentameter verses true Latin, true verse and good sense ' ! Who or what John Peters was I do not know, neither have I met with any of lis writings, but from the clue obtained, I, with a ittle trouble, succeeded in arranging the following ables, by which any one who merely knows the etters of the alphabet, and can reckon as far as line, may make good and correct Latin hexameter ind penta meter verses. This no doubt reveals the ecret of the machine previously alluded to, it icing highly probable that these or similar tables were used in its construction. I have neither in- genuity nor any acquaintance with mechanical art, till I cannot help surmising that the machine was Constructed on the principle of the barrel organ ; the tables being arranged on barrels, in a similar manner as notes of music are set on the barrels of that not very melodious instrument."